Thursday, December 21, 2006

Secretary of War Roberthad breakfast (the most important meal of the quagmire) with some of the troops, who he described as “representative of those who are serving our country here”. Unlike the generals, they all supported a “surge” in troop levels, saying, “We’ll never finish all these scrambled eggs by ourselves.”

One such totally representative soldier was Spc. Jason Glenn of the 101st Military Intelligence Battalion, who said, “Sir, I think we need to just keep doing what we’re doing,” thus proving the old line (by this blog’s patron saint) that military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

Sez the Pentagon website, “Other soldiers offered different pieces of advice to Gates. One told him to keep an open mind, while another urged him to seek answers from people on the ground.” This level of gritty candor was reciprocated: “He gave soldiers a glimpse into his goals for Iraq. ‘We’re trying to put together a package of new ways of doing things that will lead to more progress,’ he said.” Ooo, a package. But they can’t open it until Surgemas.

Here are some of those representative troops. See if you can guess which one’s nickname is “Bookworm.”

The first Marines have finally been charged in the Haditha Massacre (there is now a label for my Haditha posts in the right-hand column).